…while wondering whatever happened to Charlie the Tuna and the Frito Bandito.
A few topical smatterings for the week…titles included so you can skip what you don’t care to read.
NATURE: The National Park Service is about to offer fee-free weekends in your national parks. Not cool! Here are the weekends to avoid if you are a photographer, due to crowds and extra traffic:
* June 20-21, 2009
* July 18-19, 2009
* August 15-16, 2009
Fortunately, as every year, I already have a paid 1-year parks pass anyway, so it doesn’t matter when or to which park I go. Well, actually it does — I want to be where and when there are the fewest other people to get in the way of the shot, screaming kids to scare off the wildlife, or beer-swilling and music-blaring morons engaging in their usual uselessness.
POLITICS: B. Hussein Obama, during his campaign, did everything possible to divert attention from his Muslim heritage. If he was really proud of it, why didn’t he just do what I would, and say forthrightly, “Yes, this is my heritage, I’m proud of it, got a problem with that?” Easy. He’s a pandering wimp. Such lackus sackus comes from being yet another typically two-faced, opportunistic politician. Case in point… BHO stated that America isn’t a “Christian nation.” Then he goes before French TV and says “If you actually took the number of Muslim Americans, we’d be one of the largest Muslim countries in the world.” Say what? How many faces and fronts does this guy have anyway? Most Muslims, who worship the same God of Abraham as Christians, oppose abortion, promiscuity and sodomy (like most Christians worldwide). Will they see, then, the duplicity in his policies versus his rhetoric, and better yet, call him on it? I hope so.
SPORTS: Check them off: T.O. — Gone! (Empty) Tank Johnson — Gone! PacMan Jones — Gone! Addition by subtraction alone tells me the Cowboys will be better this year. Roy Williams (WR) doesn’t bother me; I know what he’s capable of, and it’s plenty good enough. I have grown to accept, even like, some of the draft picks, and the great blue star will be worn on the helmets of the deepest and most talented stable of running backs in the NFL. Now if only…Princeton alum and former QB Jason Garrett figures out how to balance out the passing attack better with more of Marion the Barbarian, a healthy (and therefore astoundingly explosive) Felix Jones, and the surprising Tashard Choice. Emphasizing the run game in the rugged and physical NFC East will allow the massive OL to do what they do best — plow open some space — and minimize Romo’s mistakes under pressure. Let’s hope so anyway!
WEATHER: Good news: The pattern is changing, and for the better! It’s about stinkin’ time we’ll have some robust mid-upper level winds juxtaposed with foci for supercell genesis! Thermodynamically speaking, the lack of even indirect Gulf trajectories bothers me a little, but maybe Friday will be a test as to whether the origin of the moisture matters much with regard to modulating the shape and geometry of the moist profile in the low levels. Prospective storm inflow all will be “recycled” air. After that, virtually every day for the next week looks to be a potential storm intercept day somewhere. Let the chase season begin, at long last.
The central Great Plains beckons. With all the snow in late winter, and all the rain so far this spring, parts of western KS, NE, and eastern CO ought to be green and bountifully blanketed with wildflowers. Let’s hope some bad-mother supercells complete the scenery whenever we get up there.